Fairytales
by FeyFaerie
Summary: Her dark hair was so pretty. Her best friend Harper told her, and her mother and her grandmother told her, and her classmates always admired it, long; dark; glittering ringlets. It was so smooth for such curly hair, they told her. So pretty. But Alex wasn't particularly happy with it anymore. Jalex.


A/N: Well, I've not gone in for any of these teeny programs for a good 4/5 years, but when I stumbled upon this pairing, I couldn't resist!  
Disclaimer: I don't own WoWP. If I did, it wouldn't have turned to total crap somewhere around the beginning of Season 4.

Enjoy! (And review! :D)

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Fairytales

Her dark hair was so pretty. Her best friend Harper told her, and her mother and her grandmother told her, and her classmates always admired it, long; dark; glittering ringlets. It was so smooth for such curly hair, they told her. So pretty. But Alex wasn't particularly happy with it anymore. She declared she was going to dye it green, or some other rebellious shade as soon as she was old enough. The horror wore off, once she'd parroted this at her mother enough times, and her uncle bought her a spiky green wig for her birthday.

It started with her book of fairy tales. Another birthday present, this one from her grandmother, and at the grand old age of seven, she had yet to develop her abhorrence towards reading. It was a rather lovely book, each story embellished with beautiful illustrations. Apparently her Grandmother had given up on sending her Spanish books too, so she could read some of it herself, only needing help with the longer and less familiar words.

She had pointed out, pensively (amid lots of cooing from her mother, and adoring smiles from her father), just how very strong a resemblance Justin bore to the princes in most of the fairy tales. Dark haired, and tall for his age, Justin had smirked, and puffed out his chest, and Alex had huffed, and stomped to her room upon realising he'd been listening at the door the entire time.

After a month or so, when the household had gotten weary of reading it to her most nights, and every story had been read backwards and forwards, she settled for just staring at the pictures. Her parents, while delighted at the peace that resulted from Alex's new found hobby of reading quietly, (and the hope that this inspired in their previously reckless daughter) couldn't help but be a little concerned. Justin revelled temporarily in the lack of pranks she was pulling on him, and seemed content with her insisting to sit on his lap and read, seeing it as a fairly good compromise. Plus it was fun teasing her occasionally about staring at pictures of him, when she turned to a page with a prince. Lately, however, he'd noticed her frowning whilst she flicked through the tired pages, and she looked troubled whenever she finally put the book down.

One day, Justin was almost convinced that things had gone back to normal, when the sound of their father's furious voice travelled up to his room. "ALEX! YOU'RE GROUNDED! THAT MEANS NO TV, AND HARPER IS NOT TO COME ROUND UNTIL YOUR GROUNDING IS LIFTED! IS THAT CLEAR?!"

When it was unaccompanied by the usual childish retort, followed by the mutters that Alex just wasn't quite brave enough to yell back, he closed his book, and went to investigate.

"_Alex!_ You tried to use my wand?!" he cried angrily, seeing it on the floor next to her. His anger diminished when he looked up to see her sitting meekly on a chair, with her face pointed down, and a tiny frown creasing her little forehead. Her hair was abundant with yellow feathers, but luckily, they just seemed to be tangled in her hair, rather than replacing it.

"Oh Miha, when will you learn?" sighed their mother, as she set to work with a brush and comb. Alex's only response was to lower her head further, to Teresa's chagrin, _and was that a sniffle...?_

After another week of this strange, quiet Alex, Justin decided he couldn't take it anymore. After discovering that (yet again!) his favourite Jim Bob Sherwood action figure was untouched, and STILL in its rightful place, he strode over to Alex's room to demand an explanation, only to see her poring over the fairytale book again.

"_Still?!_" he yelled. "Why do you like this book so much? You've read it a hundred times! Don't you want to play with Max and I?" He expected Alex to look up, and wrinkle her nose at his ever-correct phrasing, or taunt him by retorting "_Me and Max_," but what he did not expect was for her to raise her head, take one look at him, and burst into tears.

"Shhhh!" he panicked, closing her door behind him, and rushing to comfort her. "I didn't mean to shout at you! Since when does that make you cry?"

"Look!" she sobbed, pointing at a picture from the book.

"One of your princesses? Is that why you're crying?" He asked, surprised. She nodded through her tears. "But look!" Justin comforts, quickly flicking through the pages of the story, to the end, and pointing. "She lives happily ever after, with her prince!" To his horror, this only makes her cry harder. He puts his arms around her, and rubs her back until her sobs recede to teary hiccups, and he can finally make out some words.

"That's why I used your wand. I'm sorry Justin," she sniffles.

He looks at her incredulously. "You didn't want them to live happily ever after?"

"Not that!" Alex snatches the book up from where he's moved it to. "Her hair! Look at her hair!"  
Justin obeys, peering at the picture. "It's yellow," he nods solemnly at her.

"They all are," she says tearfully. "All the princesses!"

"Were you trying to change it?" He asks, wondering why this had upset her so badly.

"I was trying to change mine," she whispers, pulling her knees to her chest, and wrapping her arms around herself.

"But why?" Justin asks, puzzled. "Your hair is nice! Besides, you'd look silly with blonde hair. We all would. Mom says it's because we're Latina," he says proudly. He panics again, when he sees she'd stopped listening once the word 'silly' had left his mouth, and her bottom lip was trembling.

"But then you'll marry someone else!" Alex cries, tugging at her hair. "Someone with blonde hair! Princes can only marry Princesses! And princesses are ALWAYS blonde!" she starts sobbing again after her outburst, and Justin reaches for her, shocked.

"Don't be silly," he tells her, pulling her into his lap. "I bet there are plenty of dark-haired princesses, outside of your silly book, and I bet they are tons prettier than the blonde ones."

"Really?" She looks up at him, equal parts hope and disbelief, tears still clinging to her long eyelashes.

"Of course," Justin smiles down at her, and hugs her closer. Surely no princess could be prettier than his! "I think dark hair is much nicer than blonde anyway," he told her. "Besides, I'm sure the prince could choose to marry someone else it he wanted. And I don't want to marry anyone else!"

Alex blushed, and grinned, but her expression turned doubtful. "I don't know any other princesses," she says worriedly, glancing at the book again.

"Sure you do. Uh...what about Snow White!" He smiles, noticing that her grin had fully returned again. "She had dark hair! And _she_ was said to be the fairest of them all, right?"

"Right!" Alex cried, happily. "After all..." she trailed off, her evil grin returning, "she did have _seven_ boyfriends!"

"Alex..." he groaned, burying his face in his hands, and hiding his triumphant grin. He was going to be one busy older brother, some day...

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Thanks for reading! And Review! Pretty Please? *~*


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